Jacob Shapiro

Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro (5 May 1899-9 June 1947) was a Murder, Inc. leader and racketeer who partnered with Louis Buchalter to form one of the largest contract killing organizations in the United States during the 1930s.

Biography
Jacob Shapiro was born in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire to a family of Ukrainian Jews, and he later emigrated to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, New York City. Shapiro worked as a thief during his youth, meeting Louis Buchalter when they both attempted to rob the same pushcart. The two decided to split their earnings, and they became partners at a young age. Arnold Rothstein encouraged the two men to work with Jacob Orgen in the garment industry, and Shapiro and Buchalter later decided to take over Orgen's operations. In 1927, the two men killed Orgen and took over the garment industry, fighting off several other Jewish gangsters such as the Shapiro Brothers and Amberg Brothers. Buchalter and Shapiro, teaming up with fellow gangsters Bugsy Siegel, Albert Anastasia, and Abe Reles, went on to create the contract killing outfit known as "Murder, Inc." during the 1930s. In 1944, Shapiro was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for murder, and he died of a heart attack in 1947.